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i'm beryl and this week's around the
world topic is
a little bit different
surprisingly the topic is not food
related
this week we're looking at wedding
dresses
mini story time i got married four years
ago my husband is from a city in
northern india so when we got married we
had two weddings
one in the united states and one in
india
the indian wedding was just crazy it was
so much fun i experienced so many things
that i had never known about
the biggest one for me though was what i
wore it was my wedding dress
i had never seen or worn anything like
that in my entire life
and i absolutely loved it
but that was the impetus for this
episode i know that a lot of women wear
the white western style gown on their
wedding day but that is not the default
around the world wedding dresses vary
greatly from country to country
so for this episode i spoke to seven
dressmakers
in seven countries to see the different
types of wedding dresses around the
world
so this
is the wedding dress episode
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first up a dress full of color from
indonesia
namaste
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m
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next a dressmaker from northern england
if i ever told you what a dress cost
i would be killed
my name's thelma medine i am a wedding
dress designer mainly for the travelling
community
i've been making wedding dresses for the
last 30 years
my mother's a dressmaker and all my
family are into some sort of like
tailoring or dressmaking
any girls wedding day is important and
the dress is important but in the
travelling community the wedding dress
is something that's dreamed about from
when they're like three four years old
they start drawing their wedding dress
when they're that young and that's how
important it is to them to have the
perfect dress for the perfect day
they want to look like a princess they
want everyone to gasp when they walk
down the aisle
the dresses have got to be white they've
got to be white but what they put on the
dress the decoration is loads of
swarovski crystal pails and things like
that so they like it blinged up they
want to stand out
a typical dress you're looking at least
5000 crystals on it usually more and
fabrics you're looking like 40 50 meters
we import fabrics from all over the
world and it's always the best duchess
satin silks satins are man-made fibre so
they can be really white
the time for us to make all the
decoration and all the under structure
is approximately 300 hours
i think the thing i like most about
making these dresses is waiting for the
customer's reaction when they see it we
do a big reveal you're sort of holding
your breath until they've seen it and
you see the relief in their face and
when they're really happy with it and
it's like a sigh of relief wow yeah they
love it
next up a dressmaker and beater from the
cheyenne tribe in oklahoma
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to my ponca people i am datsuge nange my
given name is kenneth taylor
i am an enrolled member of the ponca
nation of oklahoma i also represent the
cheyenne the pawnee and the southern
mute
i am an artist my main focus is beading
every tribe
has a different style of dress so these
are southern cheyenne book skin dresses
the cheyenne dresses traditionally have
the strips on them and on the skirt they
have curves and those represent the
mountains
we also have the cones they are to scare
away bad spirits
creating bug skin dresses are extremely
hard but it's also really exciting too
we use alkyd deer hide it's usually
white as white as you can get it
they can be colorful
depending on the type of beads you use
they usually consist of the four colors
red yellow white and black they
represent the different peoples of the
world
buckskin dresses could easily go up to
ten thousand dollars depending on how
much work and how intricate the beadwork
is
my favorite part about making the dress
would probably be
actually the last stitch bringing it all
together
at the end of the day what i love the
most is seeing my creation being worn
and being cherished
i think it is a sense that you can go
back into the past
that that just gives them a sense of
pride knowing that they are representing
their tribe in a good way and
that they get to wear their traditional
clothing on their special day
just that's what i like the most is
seeing my work
being loved
next up a dress made with gold from
tunisia
hey
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a
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from india a dressmaker and the same
style of dress that i wore on my wedding
day
my name is karan durani i'm a designer i
feel like indian fashion in general
completely revolves around weddings
what happens in india is that we have
these beautiful different kind of
cultures coming together everybody
follows a different tradition but we
have this menga choli which centers the
universe of indian bridal wear
it's an extension of indian wear from
the olden eras
we have a typical choli which kind of
looks like a crop top and paired with a
skirt but probably with a lot more
flowers and the entire outfit is
eventually paired with a loose fabric
which a girl wears on her body sometimes
over the head like a whale as for the
bride's needs
chanderi is one of the main focus
fabrics which is hand woven and it's a
mix of cotton and silk
then embroidery stars takes months and
months and months
when it comes to stitching and a really
elaborate wedding outfit would probably
take easily three kilos of just simple
sitaras or beads which just
get all over the outfit yeah
in india we are known about our
craftsmanship the embroideries the
finesse
of course it is a high pressure job i
want that bride to literally beam with
an infectious joy that makes everybody
around her being
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from ghana a kente dressmaker
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and finally in sweden we spoke to a
traditional folk dressmaker
my name is fiamo carlos lin bloom i'm an
embroiderer i do a lot of crafts and
fork costume as well
the wedding dress in the swedish culture
is important it's meant to signal
festivity
the name of this dress is vuonga dress
vonga is a small parish outside of north
shopping in sweden it's a black silk
taffeta dress
to decorate the dress we'd use white or
gold lace
and glass beads and pearls and also make
small flowers out of paper or fabric
scraps i have a favorite part of this
gown at the bottom of the skirt there's
a check pattern
i think it's adorable
and under this dress
there will be three layers of wool
skirts to make the dress stand out like
a bell
one of the most important elements is
the crown
it's big and heavy
it's from virgin mary it's something
almost a bit royal about a girl who
wears a crown
today we see more people wearing folk
costume and
wedding dresses i think mostly in the
countryside where the cultural heritage
is a bit stronger this is one way of
preserving but also developing the
cultural heritage of sweden
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i really loved making this episode i
loved seeing all of the different
dresses how they are adorned how
beautiful they all were it was such a
cool thing to do
and while the dresses obviously were
really different there was this through
line of the dressmakers
obviously they're all very skilled at
their craft but when i asked them what
the most important thing about their job
was they all said the same thing
it made me feel really good to hear
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dunya
i hope they feel comfortable
happy joyful
and the prettiest they've ever been
i hope she wears it proudly in that they
feel the most prettiest in this
because they are representing their
tribe and their culture
and so it makes them feel special and it
gives them honor that they are wearing
that particular style of dress
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for that day she's cinderella for the
day
and that's what they want they are
special they've waited for this day for
since they were like three four years
old
so the most important day of their life
is this day
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yeah a bride celebrates not just her
wedding
her outfit but the entire process of
this journey her own way
there's a lot of emotional pressure a
lot of societal pressure of
what the right thing to do is the idea
is to you do it your way and just
celebrate it
you